Which publication first printed Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet,” introducing Sherlock Holmes?

Beeton’s Christmas Annual first printed Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet,” introducing Sherlock Holmes.

The novel appeared in 1887 in a special annual magazine published by Ward Lock & Co. It introduced both Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson, whose partnership became the foundation of the later canon. The first edition was illustrated by David Henry Friston.

The story did not initially appear in The Strand Magazine. That magazine became strongly associated with Holmes later, beginning with “A Scandal in Bohemia” in 1891 and helping establish Sidney Paget’s influential visual image of the detective. This difference is a common source of confusion.

“A Study in Scarlet” was published as a complete novel rather than as one of the later magazine short stories. Its title refers to the bloodshed Holmes sees as the central pattern in the case. The book’s first appearance is historically important because it predates Holmes’s enormous popularity in The Strand.